The Greens’ right-wing preference strategy in South Australia has come home to roost with a re-elected Sarah Hanson-Young gifting Tony Abbott’s good mate and conservative Family First candidate Bob Day the Senate balance of power.
In an echo of Victorian Labor’s botched 2004 deal that saw Steve Fielding elected ahead of Jacinta Collins, the pushing of the Senate button yesterday saw leadership aspirant Hanson-Young returned with anti-gay marriage advocate Day at five and Liberal Simon Birmingham at six. Day received 3.76% of the primary vote or 0.26 of a quota in the race, which was formally declared at Adelaide’s Stamford Plaza hotel this morning.
A summary of the key preference flows in SA shows that the decision of the party to go rogue and draft in Bob Brown to directly negotiate with the micro-right will likely result in a tranche of Tory policies becoming Australian law.
Senior party powerbrokers, including Brown, resigned Christine Milne chief-of-staff Ben Oquist and Hanson-Young herself decided to throw ideology to the wind in South Australia, placing the Palmer United Party and Katter’s Australian Party ahead of Labor and other micros ahead of Nick Xenophon’s No. 2 candidate Stirling Griff. The approach angered Labor with senior figures now extremely reticent to deal again with the Greens in 2016 — a scenario that if rolled out nationally could deny the party a single Senate seat.
It has also caused consternation inside the Greens with other states irate at the perverse consequences of “dealing with the devil”.
The South Australian party effectively baulked at the national preferences committee process with Hanson-Young, Brown and Oquist talking with the PUP, Xenophon and the micros directly. It appears that in return, PUP put the Greens before Labor, the Liberals and Griff and that Katter placed the Greens before Labor and Griff. The No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics placed the Greens before Labor and Griff.
In the wash-up, Hanson-Young was elected on PUP and Labor preferences but her preferences went on to elect Day instead of Griff. In another grim irony, the other possible party the Greens could have elected was the No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics.
The Greens published a full-page SA newspaper ad in the lead-up to polling day claiming a vote for Xenophon was a vote for the Liberals. In fact, Xenophon’s ticket was split down the middle. It drew an angry rebuke from the independent Senator, who accused the party of pedalling desperate “lies”.
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• Meanwhile …
ABC: Palmer United’s Zhenya Wang to represent WA in the Senate; Greens’ Scott Ludlam loses seat
Palmer United Party (PUP) candidate Zhenya Wang and Labor’s Louise Pratt have won the last two West Australian Senate seats, while sitting Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has lost out.
The results means PUP will have three representatives in the Senate.
Early in the counting, it was predicted the Australian Sports Party’s Wayne Dropulich would pick up a seat but he has missed out.
Counting for the six seats was completed earlier today and while the results are yet to be formally declared, the count shows Mr Wang will pick up a position.
Senator Pratt narrowly retained her seat.
They will join the Liberal’s David Johnston, Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds, together with Joe Bullock from the ALP.
It is understood 14 votes separated the key pairings of Labor with the Palmer United candidate and the Greens with the Australian Sporting Party for the final two seats.
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In a tweet sent shortly after the count concluded, he said he would seek a recount.
• But wait, there’s more, Crikey Friday: WA Senate drama: ballot-box anomalies boost Ludlam’s fight
